Soldiers of a Different Cloth

John F. Wukovits

Description

In Soldiers of a Different Cloth, New York Times best-selling author and military historian John Wukovits tells the inspiring story of thirty-five chaplains and missionaries who, while garnering little acclaim, performed extraordinary feats of courage and persistence during World War II. Ranging in age from twenty-two to fifty-three, these University of Notre Dame priests and nuns were counselor, friend, parent, and older sibling to the young soldiers they served. These chaplains experienced the horrors of the Death March in the Philippines and the filthy holds of the infamous Hell Ships. They dangled from a parachute while descending toward German fire at Normandy and shivered in Belgium’s frigid snows during the Battle of the Bulge. They languished in German and Japanese prison camps, and stood speechless at Dachau.

Based on a vast collection of letters, papers, records, and photographs in the archives of the University of Notre Dame, as well as other contemporary sources, Wukovits brings to life these nearly forgotten heroes who served wherever duty sent them and wherever the war dictated. Wukovits intertwines their stories on the battlefronts with their memories of Notre Dame. In their letters to their superior in South Bend, Indiana, they often asked about campus, the Grotto, and the football team. Their love for Notre Dame helped buttress them during their wartime tribulations, and their return to campus was akin to a warm homecoming. Soldiers of a Different Cloth will fascinate and engage all readers interested in the history of World War II and alumni, friends, and fans of the Fighting Irish.

Sixteen United States paratroopers following close on the heels of friendly Russian forces liberated the priest. Father Duffy joined his Protestant minister friend, Reverend Taylor, in conducting a thanksgiving service a few hours later. In his sermon, Taylor said they were all humbled to have their prayers of deliverance answered, “and in that humility must commit ourselves to rebuilding a world where such a war can never again occur. We’re going back to our families soon. Let’s go back with love in our hearts and His work in our hands. Let’s tell the world what God did in Cabanatuan, Bilibid, O’Donnell, Fukuoka 22, and Hoten. This is not the end but the beginning. Let’s turn the world right side up—for God and for our country.” Father Duffy then closed the service by leading them in the Lord’s Prayer.

After a period during which Father Duffy rested, ate decent food, and focused on his health, he turned to correspondence with people back home. Telegrams from the American Red Cross had already alerted Duffy’s superior in Toledo, the Most Rev. Karl J. Alter, that Duffy had been freed and would soon be on his way to the United States, but the priest now wanted to provide additional information. In a long letter to Bishop Alter written eight days after his liberation, Father Duffy provided further details about his condition. “At last we are free and by God’s mercy, alive. I’m one of the few survivors of a trip in which we rode four ships to get to Japan, one of the two chaplains and the only priest out of the nine who were originally aboard.” He explained that he was still slow in moving around, mainly due to swollen feet from beriberi, but expected to return home on the first plane out. “Henceforth, Alcatraz will hold no terror for the survivors of Bataan and Corregidor. All of us who have survived know God has been very good and are most grateful, to many has been the day in the past when death would have been a merciful end to temporal suffering.” Referring to man’s ability to triumph over evil, proof of which Duffy had seen since his capture in 1942, he added, “It is difficult to understand the wonderful and mysterious works of God but He certainly looks after His own.”

Father Duffy had changed in the previous three years. Before the war, he had enjoyed the company of generals and colonels, politicians and bigwigs, especially Generals MacArthur and Wainwright. After enduring months of pain, torture, and misery, and after administering Last Rites to many individuals, including his fellow alumnus, Father Carberry, Duffy was more attuned to the attributes and needs of those people that he may have overlooked earlier in his career. Duffy’s Pacific ordeal had strengthened his faith, and he now shared an affinity with Father Barry, the priest who had focused on serving the troops he called “my boys.”

The atom bombs had made the invasion of the Japanese Home Islands unnecessary for Father Boland. When his ship, the Highlands, lifted anchor in the Philippines on August 25 and set course for Japan, he and the crew left as victors and occupiers instead of invaders.

During the trip he wrote Father Steiner that he would soon be in Tokyo Bay, where he would send Steiner “greetings from the Nipps [sic] capital.” He wrote that they expected to dock at Yokohama in Tokyo Bay on September 2, where they would have a front row seat to that day’s surrender ceremonies. “It should be a very interesting sight with so many ships present. They are taking no chances and we will enter the bay at general quarters. We have thirty transports in our group alone and are heavily escorted.”

As expected, Highlands arrived in Tokyo Bay on V-J Day and landed elements of the 1st Cavalry Division for occupation duty. After unloading her cargo, two days later Highlands steamed out of the bay, now resplendent with ships of all sizes, for the voyage back to the Philippines. The ship made additional supply runs to Okinawa and Japan before departing for the United States, where ship and crew arrived on November 2.

Boland left behind one of his Holy Cross associates. Father Hewitt, who had served in New Caledonia, New Guinea, the Philippines, and now Japan, volunteered to remain in that defeated country with the occupation forces. The priest at first feared an unfriendly welcome from Japanese civilians, but after Emperor Hirohito urged them to lay down their arms and accept defeat, Hewitt moved about unhindered.

One place, in particular, must have left a lasting imprint on Father Hewitt. The twisted building frames and leveled structures of Hiroshima, a city of 350,000 residents now reduced to ashes, covered the landscape for miles. Just as Father Barry had stared at Dachau and failed to find the words to convey his emotions, Father Hewitt now stood silent before Hiroshima. The priests confronted two of the most devastating instruments of the war, the concentration camps and the first atom bomb, and wondered if hopes for a better mankind had dissipated in vapor, just as did so many lives in the ovens of Dachau and in the atomic annihilation of Hiroshima. If the world were to improve, both mused, more was needed than the same weary remedies and temporary fixtures. People would have to exhibit the goodness and decency that Father Duffy saw in Bilibid and the Holy Cross missionaries witnessed in Los Banos. They would have to imitate the valor of Father Sampson’s paratroopers leaping into the Normandy darkness and the unselfishness of Barry’s 157th Infantry Regiment as it battled the Germans in Sicily, at Anzio, and through France. Anything less was bound to lead to a repetition of depravities.

They dashed to war eager to serve their fellow man, but returned pessimistic that the war had helped create a better world.

(excerpted from chapter 12)

FOREWORD

PREFACE

CHRONOLOGY

Part 1. THE CHAPLAINS HEAD TO WAR, 1920s to DECEMBER 1943

1. “Our First Baptism of Blood”: War Opens in the Philippines

2. “The Chaplain Is the Servant of God for All”: Chaplains in War Training

3. “Surely War Is a Dirty Game”: The Chaplains Go to War

Part 2. CHAPLAINS AT THE BATTLEFRONT, JANUARY 1943 to DECEMBER 1944

4. “I Never Expected to Come Out of the Philippines Alive”: Chaplains in the Pacific, 1943

5. “Daily Was I Shelled, Nightly Was I Bombed”: Father Barry from Sicily to Rome

6. “Face to Face with the Realism, the Tragedy, and the Horror of the War”: Father Sampson at D-Day

7. “Our Chaplains Are Becoming More Scattered Every Week”: Chaplains in the Pacific, 1944

8. “Hope Mr. Hitler Goes Underground Before Winter”: Chaplains in Europe to the End of 1944

Part 3. ONWARD TO VICTORY, JANUARY 1945 to PRESENT

9. “I Had the Devil Scared Out of Me Many a Time”: Closing in on Japan

10. “Facing the Insanity of Himmler’s Madmen”: Onward to Victory in Europe

11. “You Could Have Heard My Cheer in Niles”: Onward to Victory in the Pacific

12. “I Have Seen My Share of Blood, Death, Mud, Hunger and Cold”: Home

Sujets

• 20th Century
• HISTORY
• Histoire
• WW2
• Campo de concentración de Dachau
• Segunda Guerra Mundial
• Notre Dame
• General officer
• University of Notre Dame
• Military
• Battle of the Bulge
• World War II
• Normandy
• La Bataille des Ardennes
• General
• United States
• Dachau
• Seconde Guerre mondiale

Informations

• Publié par: University of Notre Dame Press
• Date de parution: 15 août 2018
• Nombre de lectures: 0
• EAN13: 9780268103965
• Langue: English
• Poids de l'ouvrage: 2 Mo

Extrait

Soldiers of a Different Cloth
SOLDIERS
of a
DIFFERENT CLOTH
Notre Dame Chaplains in World War II
JOHN F. WUKOVITS
University of Notre Dame Press • Notre Dame, Indiana
Copyright © 2018 John F. Wukovits
Published by the University of Notre Dame Press
Notre Dame, Indiana 46556
undpress.nd.edu
All Rights Reserved
Published in the United States of America
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Names: Wukovits, John F., 1944– author. | Jenkins, John I., writer of foreword. | Hesburgh, Theodore M. (Theodore Martin), 1917–2015, writer of introduction.
Title: Soldiers of a Different Cloth : Notre Dame Chaplains in World War II / John F. Wukovits ; foreword by Fr. John I. Jenkins, C.S.C. ; introduction by Rev. Theodore M. Hesburgh, C.S.C.
Description: Notre Dame, Indiana : University of Notre Dame Press, [2018] | Includes bibliographical references and index. |
Identifiers: LCCN 2018021925 (print) | LCCN 2018025343 (ebook) | ISBN 9780268103958 (pdf) | ISBN 9780268103965 (epub) | ISBN 9780268103934 (cloth : alk. paper) | ISBN 0268103933 (cloth : alk. paper)
Subjects: LCSH: World War, 1939–1945—Chaplains—United States. | Military chaplains—United States—Biography. | University of Notre Dame—Biography. Classification: LCC D810.C36 (ebook) | LCC D810.C36 U68 2018 (print) | DDC 940.54/78092273—dc23
LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2018021925
∞ The paper in this book meets the guidelines for permanence and durability of the Committee on Production Guidelines for Book Longevity of the Council on Library Resources
This e-Book was converted from the original source file by a third-party vendor. Readers who notice any formatting, textual, or readability issues are encouraged to contact the publisher at [e-mail]
To my father, Tom, ND ’38, and my mother, Grace Their spirituality was matched by their love for Notre Dame. A starting guard on the 1936 National Championship basketball team, Tom married Grace in the university’s Log Chapel. They never lost their love for each other or for Notre Dame.
CONTENTS
Foreword
Fr. John I. Jenkins, C.S.C.
Preface
Introduction
Rev. Theodore M. Hesburgh, C.S.C.
Chronology
Maps
Notre Dame Chaplains in the European Theater
Notre Dame Chaplains in the Pacific Theater
PART I
THE CHAPLAINS HEAD TO WAR
1920s to December 1943
Prologue
ONE “Our First Baptism of Blood”: War Opens in the Philippines
TWO “The Chaplain Is the Servant of God for All”: Chaplains in War Training
THREE “Surely War Is a Dirty Game”: The Chaplains Go to War

PART II
CHAPLAINS AT THE BATTLEFRONT
January 1943 to December 1944
FOUR “I Never Expected to Come Out of the Philippines Alive”: Chaplains in the Pacific, 1943
FIVE “Daily Was I Shelled, Nightly Was I Bombed”: Father Barry from Sicily to Rome
SIX “Face to Face with the Realism, the Tragedy, and the Horror of the War”: Father Sampson at D-Day
SEVEN “Our Chaplains Are Becoming More Scattered Every Week”: Chaplains in the Pacific, 1944
EIGHT “Hope Mr. Hitler Goes Underground before Winter”: Chaplains in Europe to the End of 1944
PART III
ONWARD TO VICTORY
January 1945 to Present
NINE “I Had the Devil Scared Out of Me Many a Time”: Closing In on Japan
TEN “Facing the Insanity of Himmler’s Madmen”: Onward to Victory in Europe
ELEVEN “You Could Have Heard My Cheer in Niles”: Onward to Victory in the Pacific
TWELVE “I Have Seen My Share of Blood, Death, Mud, Hunger and Cold”: Home
Appendix. Notre Dame Chaplains and Religious in World War II
Notes
Bibliography
Index
FOREWORD
Moments before they were to engage in the Battle of Gettysburg, the Civil War’s bloodiest battle with 51,000 casualties, the mostly Catholic Irish Brigade knelt to receive absolution from Father William Corby, C.S.C., a Holy Cross priest from the University of Notre Dame and the brigade’s chaplain. Although absolution was common on the fighting fields of Europe, this was the first time it had been given on an American battlefield.
Union Colonel St. Clair Mulholland, attached to the Irish Brigade, gave this eyewitness account:
The brigade was standing at “order arms,” and as he [Corby] closed his address, every man fell on his knees, with head bowed down. Then, stretching his right hand towards the brigade, Father Corby pronounced the words of absolution. The scene was more than impressive, it was awe-inspiring.
Near by, stood General Hancock, surrounded by a brilliant throng of officers, who had gathered to witness this very unusual occurrence and while there was profound silence in the ranks of the Second Corps, yet over to the left, out by the peach orchard and Little Round Top, where Weed, and Vincent, and Haslett were dying, the roar of the battle rose and swelled and echoed through the woods.

The act seemed to be in harmony with all the surroundings. I do not think there was a man in the brigade who did not offer up a heartfelt prayer. For some it was their last; they knelt there in their grave-clothes—in less than half an hour many of them were numbered with the dead of July 2.
Fr. Corby would later recall, “That general absolution was intended for all—in quantum possum—not only for our brigade, but for all, North or South, who were susceptible of it and who were about to appear before their Judge.”
Of the hundreds of monuments erected at Gettysburg to commemorate leaders of the South and North, only one is dedicated to a chaplain, Father Corby. However, he would not be the last of his Holy Cross brethren to leave the classroom to answer God’s call in war. I recently had the privilege to recognize Father William Dorwart, C.S.C., who served as a navy chaplain in Korea, the Philippines, and Operations Desert Shield and Desert Storm in Iraq, as well as on the U.S.S. Ronald Reagan and finally at Arlington National Cemetery.
Holy Cross priests have served God in many ways during peacetime and war. Considering Notre Dame’s historic links with the military, it is of no surprise that members of its founding order would volunteer as chaplains, especially during World War II.
The writer, John Wukovits (ND ’67), a renowned military author, has in these pages revealed remarkable contributions of thirty-five C.S.C. religious—mostly priests, but brothers and sisters too—in chaplaincies during World War II. None carried weapons, yet they still parachuted into Normandy on D-Day, walked shoulder-to-shoulder with American GIs on the horrific Philippine Death March, survived the bloody combat at Anzio, and prayed for and with the liberators of Dachau and its tortured victims and survivors.
The stories of these heroic members of the Holy Cross order have never been told before. John Wukovits dug deeply into the Notre Dame archives and elsewhere to bring them to light. He does it adroitly, with a historian’s care and a writer’s heart. We are in his debt.
—Fr. John I. Jenkins, C.S.C.,
President, University of Notre Dame
PREFACE
The genesis of this book came from an unexpected place. As a World War II historian, I am usually digging around in archives or scouring books and reports searching for dramatic story lines, but this emerged from a book unrelated, I thought, to that conflict. While reading a history of my alma mater, Notre Dame, written in the 1950s, I came across a paragraph mentioning that a group of priests from the university had served as chaplains during the war. The author expressed the hope that one day, someone would write their story. I agreed that a potential story existed, but only if these chaplains had experiences beyond the typical stateside posts.
I was astounded as I conducted my initial research. Far from remaining in the United States, these men served in both theaters and in many conflicts. Two struggled to survive the Bataan Death March, and others worked amid shell bursts and bullets in Italy, France, Germany, Belgium, the Philippines, Iwo Jima, Saipan, and dozens of other locales. Better yet, when I first visited one of the four valuable archives at the University of Notre Dame—one for the university itself and one each for the priests, brothers, and nuns of the Congregation of Holy Cross, the religious order that founded Notre Dame—I found a vast collection of letters, papers, records, and photographs relating to their wartime service. The chaplains corresponded with their superior, Father Thomas A. Steiner, explaining their duties and recounting what they had observed. Some, such as the powerful letters Father Joseph Barry wrote to Father Steiner, moved me with their descriptions of battle and of the painful letters all had to write to the parents of slain young soldiers. It did not take me long to conclude that I would have more than enough material to proceed.
I started with the first of numerous visits to the four archives at Notre Dame and its sister institutions, Saint Mary’s College and Holy Cross College, both directly across the street from Notre Dame. I spent hours scanning and reading the letters of Father Barry and the other Holy Cross chaplains held at the Congregation of Holy Cross’s U.S. Province Archives Center, where Father Christopher Kuhn, C.S.C., and his assistant Deb Buzzard—two of the most skilled and cooperative arch