The Cost

[Eric Queen]

Here is a letter sent from Paratrooper Heinrich Broder in late April 1941 to his Mother, just three weeks before operation "Merkur", the attack on Crete.



"Dear Mother !
This letter I write with hopes that it will never reach you. If it should, please carry it courageously and strong, because the you will provide a son the greatest honor.
We did go with enthusiasum and desire into battle, and we knew that at the end would be death. Exactly as we followed our path, so should you follow yours and be proud of us. Dear Mother, I thank you for all the beautiful and good things you have done for me. Who could have had a more wonderful childhood than Gerhard and me. I can at least say that I had a wonderful life and died a good death for Germany.
Your pain will subside when you think about it. If I had 1000 lives, I would be ready to die 1000 deaths for the fatherland. I close with the hope that Gerhard will be alive with you.The best wishes for him, as he knows brotherly love does not require additional words of comfort. Write Margot and comfort her. I loved her very much, she is young and has the future in front of her.
Dear, Dear Mother!
Your Heini "

Here is Heinrich Broder, still in his army uniform, with his brother Gerhard who was also a paratrooper ( notice the sleeveband )



Broders grave near the airfield at Melemes
( Kreta )

[Chris Boonzaier]

A nice set,
somehow it reminds me, when I went to the Gulf I sent my uncle a letter to be forwarded to my parents in case I was killed, saying, not to worry, I had chosen this way of life and they should make themselves no reproaches for what had happened to me, or my destiny, and to please send my record collection to my friend Peter Casey in Cape Town, South Africa.

In Zaire a year later I thought my chances were so good I did not bother, and when we went to Bosnia a bit later I sent more or less the same letter to my uncle, excluding the bit to Peter Casey, because I had a letter from him saying his record player was brken and he could from now on only listen to CDs.

The funny thing was, if you can call it that, we were all really young guys in the Gulf, had been taught that our 7,62 machine guns could penetrate 1 cm of steel and our 50 calibers a damn side more, and our VABs only had 1cm or a bit more armor on them !!!!!
We also thought that Sadamm would be using Chemical and biological stuff against us and I bet I was not the only one who spent a sleepless night thinking about that.
Only in Bosnia, after having sweated a lot of blood in the Gulf, did we learn that 1 and a bit CM of armoured steel, at a good angle, can take many a bullet and only have the paint chipped.

I know the kind of letter Broder wrote, it is a patriotic lie.
In the 7 months I sent in Saudi Arabia and Iraq I was allowed one 5 Minutephone call at Xmas, which I used to call my parents, I could not tell them where I was, what I was doing, basically only lie to them that if anything happened in the near future they were not to worry, they would know within a few hours if anything happened to me. I knew full well at the time that the legion had many, many priorities, and familys of legionnaires were not one of them, itwould have probably have taken days, if not weeks before my parents would have heard of any wounds or death.

The main thing in my mind was to reasure the family, that they should not worry, have regrets or feel to bad, because basically I would have died playig a game of my choice.

Now I am a bit older and would probably not go so happily into danger, but if I did, and something happened, I still would want to help my parents, siblings and wife to get over it and no matter how I had died, I would still hope that someone had had enough brains to writethat it had been painless with a bullet in the brain.

The soldier may suffer, it does not help anyone if the family suffersas well.

I think this is a wonderful example of a young man with more guts than brains, who probaly thought more of saving his family pain than he thought of saving himself pain, and if he had been 10 years older, may have seen life a bit different.

[Rick Research]

Here's one from the other side, from an older man, married and with two little girls at home who have no memory of their father, my great-Uncle Walter S. Mooney (b. 1909), Private in Co. K, 38th Infantry/2nd Division, killed in action 29 July 1944 outside St. Lo^, fighting the 2nd Fallschirmja"ger Division. It was his last letter home: July 20, 1944

"Hello Al(ice): I hope you are well as I have not heard from you tho of you. Get over being a brides maid & write the dirt to me. You know my mail was stopped leaving England but here in France I am now getting 9 day service. I got one yesterday from Jo dated May 25 one from Ma dated July 7th. Not having a secretary I forget lots of times who I owe a letter to.
Now a stubby pencil & paper are my big worries. This far up front they can only bring up supplies & ammunition. For which we gladly settle. I am in my slit trench writing this on the back of a cup so excuse the up & down hills. I never thought I'd come this far but it didn't take long, no longer than the zing of a bullet, to make me realize I'm in it till the finish. And I aim to see it their finish not mine. I hope Art stays around & this war ends soon. It's no place for an animal let alone men. Keep on praying & tell them not to worry. So long till I get another chance. Tell Ma hello, Walter."

Almost as if he was just away on a business trip, no big deal... what was there to worry the family about?

He was named for his uncle Walter Mooney, who came back from France in 1919 gassed, shell shocked, a human wreck who simply walked away in the 1920s and was never seen again. In turn, my great uncle Walter had a nephew named after him, USMC Lance Corporal Walter S. Mooney, Co. D/I Btn/9th Marines, killed by a Viet Cong booby trap on patrol south of DaNang 3 months and 2 days before his 20th birthday in 1966.

After that, no more male children have been named Walter in the Mooney family.

[ 15 July 2001: Message edited by: Rick Lundstrom ]