The Harrowing D-Day Survival Story Of Harold “Hal” Baumgarten

(Troops in an LCVP landing craft approaching "Omaha" Beach on "D-Day", 6 June 1944, from the Army Signal Corps Collection, [Public Domain] via Creative Commons)

On June 6, 1944, a coalition of mainly British, Canadian and American forces launched their ambitious D-Day invasion. Allied infantry sailed to the beaches of Normandy (Utah, Omaha, Gold, Juno and Sword) on fairly flimsy landing craft with Allied navy and the air support, which was often unreliable. It was a good day for the largest amphibious invasion in military history; Adolf Hitler overslept on that day, and General Erwin Rommel was away from Normandy, visiting his family in Germany. Ultimately, the invasion would prove to be a huge success, and become one of the key turning points of World War Two. Yet, the invasion was costly. An accepted statistic of casualties suffered by the Allied Powers resulting from the D-Day invasion is 10,000 dead, wounded or missing. The U. S. D-Day Memorial Foundation has identified 4,413 total deaths that resulted from the invasion, with 2, 499 of them being from the United States military.

The remarkable survival story of U. S. Private Harold “Hal” Baumgarten (1925-2016) demonstrated just how chaotic and violent the D-Day invasion was and vividly illustrated some of the dangers and obstacles the invasion force faced in Normandy. At just nineteen years old, Baumgarten would receive five major injuries—three on June 6 and two more on June 7. By the time D-Day was over, he and one other comrade would be the only survivors from their original thirty-person landing crew on Omaha Beach.

  (WWII- Europe- France; “Into the Jaws of Death — U.S. Troops wading through water and Nazi gunfire ”,Omaha Beach circa 1944-06-06, modified, [Public Domain] via Creative Commons)

Hal Baumgarten had paradoxical good and bad luck. On the one hand, he was exposed to (and hit by) numerous painful and deadly forces. Yet, he was fortunate to have survived all of the gruesome wounds he sustained. First, on June 6, German machine gun fire riddled his landing boat crew. Though many of his company were injured or killed by the incoming bullets, Baumgarten was saved by his rifle, which took the brunt of the impact. Baumgarten was alive and uninjured, but his gun was disabled—it actually snapped in two when he attempted to unjam the damaged weapon.

Next, an explosive shell hit near Private Baumgarten, shredding the left side of his face and blasting shrapnel through his jaw and teeth. Despite half of his face and mouth having been blasted thoroughly into a bloody mess, Baumgarten continued to fight. He kept calm and actually went to rescue an injured soldier. It was at this time, however, that he was once again hit by an explosive projectile. This time, it was a mortar shell. The shrapnel from the shell managed to puncture through Baumgarten’s helmet, causing even more damage to the Private’s already mangled head. Hal Baumgarten shrugged off the blast and succeeded in carrying the wounded soldier to safety.

The battered and bruised forces on Omaha Beach continued to press on, despite their wounds. Hal Baumgarten’s third major injury occurred when he stepped on what he called a “castrator mine.” The mine was designed to fire a projectile upward when triggered, usually hitting between the victim’s legs. Fortunately for Baumgarten, the mine’s projectile passed through his foot, and not his groin, resulting in an unsightly infection and the loss of a toe.

Despite his face being blasted apart and his foot ripped open, Hal Baumgarten continued to limp forward against the Germans. He suffered his fourth major injury under more heavy machine gun fire. Bullets ripped into Baumgarten’s face, blasting out even more teeth and jawbone, this time from the right side of his face. Finally, after having the left, right and top sections of his head hit by bullets or shrapnel—as well as stepping on a mine—Hal Baumgarten injected himself with a large dose of morphine and collapsed, resting among the dead and dying.

Soon, medics picked him up in a military ambulance that had managed to make its way to Omaha Beach. He got the attention of the medical crew by firing a few shots from a submachine gun he had scavenged from the nearby dead. The medics stopped and added him to their already-crowded ambulance. The Germans, however, were not done with Hal—a sniper fired shots at the medics and a bullet smashed into Baumgarten’s knee, resulting in his fifth major injury during the D-Day invasion.

Even though Baumgarten’s final wounds were sustained on June 7, he did not receive official hospital treatment until June 11, when he landed back in England. While in Britain, Baumgarten was—unsurprisingly—awarded the Purple Heart for the many injuries he experienced on behalf of the United States. From there, he began a long string of surgeries and plastic surgery to mend and reconstruct his head and leg. He went on to become a teacher and a doctor, and wrote of his WWII experience in his book, D-Day Survivor: An Autobiography. Finally, in 2015, Dr. Baumgarten received the Silver Service Medallion, which is awarded to veterans who served with distinction in WWII.

Written by C. Keith Hansley

Sources:

• http://www.ww2online.org/view/harold-baumgarten/segment-4  
• http://www.cnn.com/2013/06/03/world/europe/d-day-fast-facts/ 
• http://www.nww2m.com/2016/12/farewell-to-dr-harold-hal-baumgarten-d-day-survivor-and-friend-of-the-national-wwii-museum/  
• http://www.ddaymuseum.co.uk/d-day/d-day-and-the-battle-of-normandy-your-questions-answered

Geoffrey of Monmouth Would Have You Believe Ancient Britons Conquered Most of Europe

(Arthurian Knight, by Charles Ernest Butler  (1864–1933), [Public Domain] via Creative Commons)

The History of the Kings of Britain, completed in 1136 by a man known as Geoffrey of Monmouth, is admired for popularizing the legends of Merlin and King Arthur. Geoffrey of Monmouth’s tales inspired romantic writers throughout Europe to write Arthurian stories of knighthood and chivalry. You can read about that aspect of The History of the Kings of Britain, HERE. In this article, however, let’s look at something even more interesting—the outlandish claims of conquest that Geoffrey of Monmouth attributed to the ancient Britons. Even though almost every page in The History of the Kings of Britain has to be read with extreme caution in terms of historical accuracy, the work was so well written that the bizarre ‘history’ is highly enjoyable and entertaining.

One of the first major historical events that Geoffrey of Monmouth tweaked in favor of the Britons was the sack of Rome around 390 BCE. In the historical version of the sack of Rome by the Gauls, the Senones tribe led by their chief, Brennus, besieged and pillaged the city of Rome. After the Romans surrendered to the Gauls, they also had to hand over a lot of their wealth. This traumatic event is considered one of the key events that inspired Rome to dramatically develop their military. In Geoffrey of Monmouth’s version of this event, however, Chief Brennus was a Briton who had lost his position in Britain to his older brother Belinus, who had also managed to subjugate Norway. Brennus then fled to Gaul, where he was made chief of the Senones. According to Geoffrey of Monmouth, after Belinus and Brennus had a few more wars amongst themselves, the two joined forces to invade Rome, leading to the sack of the great city.

Now for the Arthurian stories. Geoffrey of Monmouth seems to place King Arthur’s father, Utherpendragon, in the 5th and 6th century CE, and his adventures mainly revolve around wars between the Britons and the Saxons. Geoffrey placed King Arthur in the 6th century, after King Clovis of the Franks had become Catholic, and he was given a much more elaborate string of conquests in The History of the Kings of Britain.

Geoffrey of Monmouth basically left nothing untouched by King Arthur—he wrote that Arthur went to war in Britain with the Saxons, the Picts, the Scots and the Irish. He also apparently subdued Iceland, Gotland, Gunhpar, the Orkneys and somehow subjugated all of Norway and Denmark. Then Geoffrey of Monmouth claimed that Arthur invaded Gaul (which would have historically been controlled mostly by the Franks), taking Normandy, Gascony and Aquitania. Next, the Romans arrived to challenge King Arthur (even though the Western Roman Empire had already fallen by the 6th century CE) and the Roman army also fell to Arthur’s Britons. Just when all of Europe seemed ready to fall to the might of the Britons, Mordred rebelled against King Arthur. While suppressing the rebellion, Arthur was injured and was carried away to Avalon, where he disappeared.

So, as you can tell, Geoffrey of Monmouth was very creative with his book, The History of the Kings of Britain. To end with a corny conclusion, Geoffrey of Monmouth’s book only had tiny tidbits of real history mixed into a gigantic soup of fiction and myth—yet, despite it all; it was a very delicious and enjoyable soup.

Written by C. Keith Hansley

Sources:

• The History of the Kings of Britain by Geoffrey of Monmouth, translated by Lewis Thorpe. New York: Penguin Classics, 1966.  
• http://www.ancient.eu/Western_Roman_Empire/ 
• https://www.britannica.com/topic/Hengist  
• https://www.britannica.com/biography/Brennus-Gallic-leader-flourished-4th-century-BC 
• http://www.ancient.eu/article/910/ 

The First Monarch To Convert His Nation To Christianity Was Tiridates III of Armenia

(Gregory the Illuminator, 14th century mosaic from the Pammakaristos Church, Constantinople, [Public Domain] via Creative Commons)

The reign of Constantine the Great is often seen as one of the most important breakthroughs for the acceptance and rise of Christianity in the lands touched by the Roman Empire. Constantine ushered Christianity out of persecution and elevated the religion to a place of prominence in the Roman world. Yet, one of Constantine’s contemporaries had already beat him to the prize of becoming the first head of state to convert to Christianity and brought about a national conversion—King Tiridates III of Armenia.

The story begins with a young child being smuggled out of Armenia and into the region of Caesarea, Cappadocia, which is in modern day Turkey. The boy was from a noble family that had lost influence in Armenia and was now being hunted. While the child waited in Caesarea for his homeland to become safe again, he converted to Christianity. He eventually returned to Armenia to preach his new religion, and became known as Gregory the Illuminator (240-332 CE).

(Tiridates III of Armenia, by Gaidzakian, Ohan, 1837-1914, [Public Domain] via Creative Commons)

At first, King Tiridates III responded to the Christian population in his country much like the emperors in the Roman Empire—with oppression and persecution. Gregory the Illuminator, however, was a great and persistent missionary. As the legend goes, Tiridates III was finally converted to Christianity after Gregory performed a miracle healing, curing the Armenian king of some illness. King Tiridates III is thought to have converted during the first decade of the 4th century CE and Christianity was made the national religion of Armenia around 314 CE. As for Gregory the Illuminator, he was chosen to be the first chief bishop (catholicos) of the Armenian Church.

Written by C. Keith Hansley.

Sources:

• Early Christianity: A Brief History by Joseph H. Lynch. New York: Oxford University Press, 2010. 

Alexander The Great Jumped Naked Into An Icy River, Became Ill, And Then Was Revived With A Dangerous Medical Potion

(Alexander the Great by Giuseppe Cades (1750–1799) in icy water)

The year was around 333 BCE. Alexander the Great had led an army from Greece into Anatolia, had defeated the Persian forces multiple times and had brought numerous cities under the control of his growing empire. He even captured the narrow Cilician Gates, which gave Alexander a route to march into Syria.

The king of Macedonia marched south from the Cilician Gates to reach Tarsus. Here, however, one of those odd (but dramatic) events that were scattered throughout Alexander’s life occurred which delayed the Macedonian army for several agonizingly tense days.

The weather was brutal when the Macedonian army entered Tarsus. The heat was nearly unbearable, so you can imagine the relief when Alexander spotted the Cydnus River. In addition, the water from the river was supposedly imbued with some health benefits. Suffice it to say, Alexander the Great stripped down naked and plunged into the river. In his desperation to cool off, however, the Macedonian king had overlooked something—the Cydnus River was largely fed by snowmelt.

Despite the air being uncomfortably hot, the water was dangerously cold. The freezing water affected Alexander quickly—he went into shock and his body began to lose function. Fortunately, Alexander’s companions were able to swiftly pull the king from the icy water.

Nevertheless, Alexander had been in the river long enough to fall seriously ill. There is rarely a convenient time to be sick, but it was even more so for Alexander—Darius III of Persia was closing in with an army to crush the young upstart king. With this danger in mind, Alexander questioned his physicians for a quick remedy for his illness.

One man, Philip of Acarnania, had a suggestion that fit Alexander’s bill. His proposal was a strong purge to jolt Alexander out of his illness. The purge would be dangerous, and it would cause the king to deteriorate further before he finally recovered. Despite the danger, Alexander accepted the proposal and agreed to undergo the risky treatment.

As the legend goes, while Philip was preparing the medicine for the purge, Alexander received a warning from his powerful general (and potential rival), Parmenion. The general’s note claimed that Philip had been paid by Darius III to poison Alexander the Great. The message put the king in a great dilemma. On the one hand, Darius III did, indeed, offer a reward to any would-be assassins willing to take down Alexander. Conversely, Philip was basically a family doctor who had treated Alexander since the king’s childhood.

Alexander weighed his options until Philip arrived with the medicine. The two did a hand-off—Alexander accepted and drank Philip’s concoction, while the physician was given Parmenion’s letter. Philip reportedly just shrugged off the accusation of the letter and calmly informed Alexander that the medicine would soon begin to work.

The physician stayed with the king, applying new medications and keeping an eye on Alexander’s recovery. Within hours, there were signs of improvement. Around three days later, Alexander the Great burst from his sickroom and readied his army to continue their march.

Written by C. Keith Hansley.

Source:

• Alexander the Great by Philip Freeman. New York: Simon & Schuster Paperbacks, 2011.

Julius Caesar’s Bread Warfare At Dyrrachium

(Caesar painted by Lionel Royer (1852–1926) cropped behind a Pompeii market fresco, all [Public Domain] via Creative Commons)

In 48 BCE, while the civil war between Julius Caesar and Gnaeus Pompey was still in full swing, the two brilliant generals found themselves in a stalemate at Dyrrachium, located in modern day Albania. Pompey was the first to set up camp at Dyrrachium. When Julius Caesar arrived, he naturally decided to implement one of his specialties—siege warfare. Despite Caesar having far fewer men than Pompey, the Caesarian forces began construction of a large messy, semi-circular wall around Pompey’s position, cutting him off from all land-based escape routes. In response, Pompey created his own defensive wall.

 With the armies of Caesar and Pompey positioned behind opposing fortified walls, a waiting game ensued. Both sides hoped that their rations could last until their enemy began to starve, or a breach in the wall was found or created. The stalemate caused trouble for both Pompey and Caesar. In Pompey’s camp, food had been well stocked, but fodder for horses began to run low and safe water became scarce. On Caesar’s side, securing food was the main issue hindering the troops.

In his Commentaries on the Civil War, however, Julius Caesar recounted how one of his camps along the wall at Dyrrachium alleviated their food crisis with some clever cooking. The men under the command of one of Caesar’s officers, named Valerius, were fairly well off—they had access to cattle and milk. In addition, the soldiers discovered a nearby source of edible roots, which Julius Caesar called chara. With milk and chara roots present in ample quantities, some curious soldier mixed the two ingredients in a culinary experiment and found that the chara roots could be baked into something resembling a loaf of bread.

With the production of their chara bread, Caesar’s men were kept reasonably well fed. They also seemed to have loaves to spare, for Caesar wrote that his men would sometimes throw the chara bread at Pompey’s forces (sometimes tossing loaves over Pompey’s walls) to prove that they still had food and the siege would not be ending anytime soon.

Nevertheless, in walling off Pompey’s camp, Caesar had to spread his men thin, creating vulnerabilities. Pompey attacked a weak point in his enemy’s wall—a part still under construction—and broke free from the siege, dealing Julius Caesar one of his most clear defeats of the Civil War.

Written by C. Keith Hansley.

Sources:

• War Commentaries by Gaius Julius Caesar and Aulus Hirtius, translated by W. A. McDevitte and W. S. Bohn, 2014.  
• Julius Caesar by Philip Freeman. New York: Simon & Schuster Paperbacks, 2008.
• http://www.unrv.com/fall-republic/battle-of-dyrrhachium.php 
• http://www.livius.org/articles/battle/siege-of-dyrrhachium-48-48-bce/ 
• http://www.historyofwar.org/articles/battles_dyrrhachium.html 
• https://www.warhistoryonline.com/featured/history-forget-savior-hero-like-hendrik-drogt.html 

Roland Garros, Anthony Fokker And The WWI Fighter Plane Revolution

Left: Roland Garros c. 1910, Right: Anthony Fokker c. 1916, [Public Domain] via Creative Commons)

In World War One, the French airman, Roland Garros, took the first step in revolutionizing the airplane for warfare. His dream was to be able to fire a machine gun through turning airplane propellers without endangering the aircraft. Garros’ design was simplistic and not the most efficient model, but it got the job done—he basically armored his propellers with metal wedges that deflected bullets away from the propeller blades. Even though his design was a bit brutish, Roland Garros managed to shoot down four German airplanes by the time he crashed and was captured by the Germans in 1915. He would remain a prisoner of war in Germany until 1918.

Unfortunately for the Allied Powers of WWI, Roland Garros was not all that was recovered from the crash in 1915—Germany also salvaged Garros’ airplane propeller and gun design. The Germans then handed the design over to the brilliant Dutch engineer, Anthony Fokker. Although Fokker wanted to remain neutral in WWI, and had actually tried to sell his airplanes to the Allies, the Allied Powers had refused to buy his planes and Germany became his main client. The Allies would soon regret their decision not to work with Fokker, for he would take Garros’ design and improve it exponentially.

In less than a year after Roland Garros was captured, Anthony Fokker designed a mechanism that synchronized an airplane’s machine gun to the propellers in such a way that the bullets passed by the propeller blades like clockwork without collision. With this new invention in 1915, the Fokker E-1 fighter plane was born and the Fokker Scourge of German air superiority began.

As for Roland Garros, he escaped from German custody in February of 1918 and immediately took to the skies in an Allied fighter plane. Unfortunately for Garros, however, his plane was shot down later that year, but this time, he did not survive. In a twist of irony, the German plane that shot Garros out of the sky was none other than one of Anthony Fokker’s synchronized fighter planes.

Written by C. Keith Hansley

Sources:

• https://www.britannica.com/biography/Anthony-Herman-Gerard-Fokker  
• http://www.nationalaviation.org/our-enshrinees/fokker-anthony/ 
• http://www.militaryfactory.com/aircraft/detail.asp?aircraft_id=393  
• http://edition.cnn.com/2014/05/29/sport/roland-garros-war-hero-french-open/

The Story Of A 15th-Century Witch Who Started A Devastating Plague After Being Buried

(The Premature Burial by Antoine Wiertz (1806–1865), [Public Domain] via Creative Commons)

The Malleus Maleficarum (or The Witches’ Hammer) was the go-to manual that witch-hunters and inquisitors would reference during most of the witch-hunting era. The book was written by Heinrich Kramer and James Sprenger, two professors of theology who happened to be in the Order of Friars Preachers and were also Papal Inquisitors with a glowing recommendation from Pope Innocent VIII. Along with their description of witches, devils, monsters and the powers and abilities of all the above, the authors of the Malleus Maleficarum also included in their text some stories and accounts of supernatural events that they picked up in their research. This is one of the really odd tales from their book involving a witch, a burial shroud and a plague that decimated a town.

This particular event described in the Malleus Maleficarum probably occurred (or was set) in an Italian town. The story refers to an official called a ‘podesta,’ which usually refers to a magistrate in medieval Italy.

The tale began with an experienced sorceress and enchantress being buried in an uncertain Italian town. An interesting note—the writers did not clarify if the woman was buried dead or alive, but the story works in either scenario. Nevertheless, she was buried and life went on as usual for the rest of the inhabitants of the Italian town…at least in the beginning.

Soon after the burial of the sorceress, a sudden plague brought utter devastation to the small town. The rate of death was so high that the officials of the town began to search desperately for a way to save themselves and their fellow citizens.

In their frantic search for a cure for the plague, the town officials stumbled upon a rumor that the plague was somehow caused by the sorceress who had been buried earlier. According to the rumor, the plague was being sustained by the sorceress eating her own burial shroud and would not end until the entirety of the shroud was swallowed and digested.

With this new lead, the officials of the town journeyed to the place where they had buried the sorceress and then excavated the woman from her grave. When they observed the woman—lo and behold—the officials found that the sorceress had eaten her way through half of her burial shroud.

Taking in this bizarre and shocking sight, one official (the podesta) drew his sword, decapitated the sorceress and threw the head far away from the grave. According to the tale, as the head of the sorceress rolled away from the grave (and the burial shroud within it) the plague abruptly came to an end and the town was able to recover. So ended this odd tale about a sorceress (possibly buried alive) who brought a plague on a town by eating her own burial shroud.

If you are curious about how this story was presented in the Malleus Maleficarum, click HERE for a Google Books link to the section where this account is listed (Malleus Maleficarum, Part 1: Question XV).

Written by C. Keith Hansley.

Source:

• The Malleus Maleficarum by Heinrich Kramer and James Sprenger, translated by Montague Summers. New York: Dover Publications, 1971. 

Alexander The Great Was One Of The First Military Minds To Use Ancient Anti-Personnel Artillery

(Alexander (by Placido Costanzi (Italian, 1702-1759)) with a catapult pointed at Darius III (Pompeii mosaic), all images Public Domain via Creative Commons)

Alexander the Great and his father Philip II were two of the greatest military innovators of the ancient world. Philip took control of Greece by renovating the Macedonian military. He outfitted his men in light armor with small shields, and equipped his infantry phalanxes with spears that were much longer than those used by the average Greek hoplite. The result was an infantry force that had long reach, but was also incredibly maneuverable. Philip also modified the doctrine of his cavalry to work closely in tandem with his infantry, and he developed a contingent of military engineers that could create infrastructure and build siege engines. Much of Alexander the Great’s successes can be attributed to his father’s brilliant military innovations, but Alexander perfected what his father developed, and he put into action new, genius war strategies of his own.

One of the areas of war that Alexander the Great revolutionized was the use of ancient artillery in battle. Most ancient generals, including Alexander’s father, thought that machines like catapults were purely siege engines—and in keeping with the name, these devices were usually only used against walls and other settlement fortifications. Alexander the Great, however, being the military genius that he was, envisioned that catapults could be used in far greater a degree than just simply lobbing rocks at walls. Historians cite Alexander the Great as one of the earliest military innovators to use artillery, like catapults, against enemy military formations during battle, and not just during sieges.

Artillery worked well with Alexander’s style of warfare. He liked to surprise his enemy, get into their heads and spread confusion and fear. Firing large projectiles from catapults at infantry formations served as a powerful form of psychological warfare, and any break in discipline caused by Alexander’s artillery gave the Macedonian infantry and cavalry vital advantages to utilize during battle.

Written by C. Keith Hansley

Sources:

• Alexander the Great by Philip Freeman. New York: Simon & Schuster Paperbacks, 2011.  
• Alexander the Great: The Story of an Ancient Life by Thomas R. Martin and Christopher W. Blackwell. New York: Cambridge University Press, 2012.